MacLaine joins 'Downton' cast

The new season of PBS's "Downton Abbey" on PBS's "Masterpiece" (9 p.m. Sunday and continuing Sunday nights through Feb. 17) introduces several new characters, but the highest-profile actor joining the cast, if only for the first two hours, is undoubtedly Shirley MacLaine.

Comment

recordonline.com

Writer

Posted Jan. 5, 2013 at 2:00 AM

Posted Jan. 5, 2013 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

The new season of PBS's "Downton Abbey" on PBS's "Masterpiece" (9 p.m. Sunday and continuing Sunday nights through Feb. 17) introduces several new characters, but the highest-profile actor joining the cast, if only for the first two hours, is undoubtedly Shirley MacLaine.

For newcomers, "Downton Abbey" follows the trials and triumphs of members of the Crawley family (upstairs) and their servants (downstairs) in a sprawling British estate. Years earlier, Cora saved Downton Abbey with her American wealth when she married Robert (Hugh Bonneville), earl of Grantham. Now a taste of America is coming to England as Martha butts heads with her equal, Robert's mother, the Dowager Countess, played by Maggie Smith.

At a rollicking press conference for the PBS hit last summer during the Television Critics Association summer press tour, MacLaine confessed she hadn't remembered meeting Smith previously, but Smith reminded her.

MacLaine said filming "Downton Abbey" was an extraordinary experience for her in stamina and in work ethic.

"We were shooting outside in the rain and in the wind with our formal gear on and nobody seemed to notice. So I quickly just stepped right in there and acted like I didn't notice either," she said.

The veteran actress had not seen the series before being approached about a guest role on the program, but she overheard her "hairdresser lady in Malibu" talking about the show.

"When it was announced I was going to do Martha Levinson, I didn't know anything about her. I don't even know if you do," she said, nodding to series writer/creator Julian Fellowes. "But my hairdresser does. All the ladies in my hairdressing place said, 'Oh, she's Jewish and she's from Long Island and she has a lot of money and she's looking for a tight, old man.' I thought that might be worthwhile investigating. Along with the great acting and fantastic show, that's basically why I did it, to see if my hairdresser lady is right."

Fellowes said it was important to introduce the Martha Levinson character because she reinforces the idea of whose money has sustained "Downton" in recent years and how Cora's background differs from that of her husband, Robert Crawley.

"As things start to change and the plates are shifting and we are reminded what Cora's come from, Cora is less afraid of the future than Robert is. She's much less afraid of change," Fellowes said. If anyone understands the world that's coming, it's Cora. And in a way the bringing in of Martha ushers in that new era by reminding us you come from a different past."

McGovern said she didn't completely understand her character until she met MacLaine.

"Suddenly it all came clear, and I realized that for two years I was in a bit of a fog," she said. "(Cora is) a kind of icon that has gone out of fashion in the decade of the '90s because we started to fall in love with women who were towers of strength in a very muscular sort of way. And she's a more old-fashioned idea of women's strength, which is somebody who is extremely flexible and resilient and can roll with the punches and is strong in a quieter, more self-effacing way."